By James M. Odato

Published 9:32 pm, Tuesday, December 17, 2013

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed applications Tuesday for orders that would require four public officials, including ex-state Sen. Hiram Monserrate, to forfeit their pension benefits.

Bharara, who runs the state's Southern District office, also asked a court for the right to serve discovery requests in an effort to locate benefits paid to former New York City Council and Yonkers City Council officials convicted of corruption offenses. "We aim to prevent corrupt elected officials from continuing to benefit from pensions paid for by the very people they betrayed in office," Bharara said. "We are committed to using every legal tool to take the profit out of crime, and that includes preventing public money from being used to fund the comfortable retirement of corrupt officials."

Monserrate was kicked out of the chamber after a 2008 incident in which he cut his girlfriend's face with a broken glass.

Bharara seeks to strip benefits from former New York City Council members Miguel Martinez, Larry Seabrook and Monserrate, and former Yonkers City Council member Sandy Annabi, all of whom were sentenced to prison between 2009 and 2012. All of them were required to forfeit funds to the government as part of their sentences, but they have not turned over any money. The pensions Bharara is seeking to block in this case would come from the New York City Employee Retirement System.

Several proposals have been put forth to take away public pension benefits from officials convicted of crimes related to elective office or other government position.